


Excellence with Integrity

by cerie



Series: Hail Mary [2]
Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: AU, College Football, F/M, Heisman Trophy, University of Nebraska, Will's Unhappy Childhood, warnings for domestic violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 09:41:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3115361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerie/pseuds/cerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The next week, Sports Illustrated has him on the cover and it’s the photo of him kissing Mac during the ceremony, Heisman forgotten on the ground beside them. </p><p>Will thinks that’s kind of fitting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Excellence with Integrity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Callie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callie/gifts).



> 1) This is from the Heisman website: 
> 
>  
> 
> _The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work. The Heisman Trophy Trust ensures the continuation and integrity of this award. The Trust, furthermore, has a charitable mission to support amateur athletics and to provide greater opportunities to the youth of our country. Our goal through these charitable endeavors is for the Heisman Trophy to symbolize the fostering of a sense of community responsibility and service to our youth, especially those disadvantaged or afflicted. All assets of the Trust beyond the expense of maintaining the annual presentation of the Heisman Memorial Trophy are reserved for such charitable causes. The Trustees, who all serve pro bono, are guided by a devotion to college football and are committed to community service and the valued tradition which the Trophy represents._
> 
>  
> 
> 2) I chose for Mac to be a Tri Delt because I've always liked their colors and symbolism and UNL doesn't have a chapter of my sorority on their campus. Hopefully Sloan and Mac emulate what it means to be a Tri Delt and I don't mean any offense to any Tri Delts out there. 
> 
> 3) All statistics are pulled from Wikipedia's account of the 1983 and 1984 Huskers football games. If they're not accurate, I apologize.

Summer comes faster than Will wants it to and he knows that means he only has three short months before he’ll be packing up his things and moving to Lincoln permanently. Being on the football team means that he won’t have a lot of time to come home and when he’s not practicing or studying for classes, he’ll be working to help supplement his income. He knows it means he’ll barely see Mac at all and the idea that he might lose her or lose what they have frightens him. 

Mac, for her part, is nothing but excited for him. She babbles about how proud she is of him and how amazing it’s going to be at UNL and how he’s really going to make something of himself. Will likes to think she’s nothing but positive about it but he sees the fear in her eyes and he doesn’t know what to do to reassure her that this is what he wants for the rest of his life. He wants to work hard at school and football so that he can marry her and be with her forever - and he’s not going to let being apart affect them. 

Mac’s birthday is in late June and Will has been racking his brain for a present. He doesn’t have a lot of money and what little he does have, he needs to give to his mother to help supplement the grocery money that his dad stingily provides. He doesn’t want his brother and sisters to do without because he was selfish and wanted to buy something for his girlfriend. The problem ends up solving itself when one of their barn cats has a litter of little tabby kittens. Giving one to Mac means one less to find a home for and Will thinks she’ll like it. He hopes, desperately, that she’ll like it. 

The day of her birthday, he drives her out to the barn where the cat has been holed up with her litter and he tries to refrain from sighing when she’s wearing nothing but a pair of tiny, cutoff shorts and a little halter top shirt. Mac’s body is long and lean with curves in all the right places and Will can hardly believe she allows him to touch her. He’s not good enough for a girl like Mac McHale and he knows it. He just hopes she can stick with him long enough until he can give her all the things she deserves. 

Mac picks a careful little path into the barn and when she steps into mud, she makes a face and scrapes her sandal against clean hay in a vain attempt to clean it off; she only manages to get hay and manure stuck to her shoe and she ends up just taking it off. Will sighs. He had hoped this was something she’d like but he guesses he might have screwed it up a little. His girlfriend isn’t used to life on a farm like he is. 

“I’ll wash it off for you with the water hose,” he promises. Mac slips off her other shoe and creeps a little closer to the corner of the barn. It seems like all the mess is forgotten once she sees the kittens and she lets out a little high pitched gasp. Her hands come up to cover her mouth and she looks back at Will with eyes all aglow. 

“Will, can I touch them? Oh, they’re so precious!” Will draws up close and wraps his arms around her waist from behind. She’s so tiny that he circles her easily and he drags her back against his chest and leans down, whispering against her ear. “You can pick one out. Happy birthday, baby. This is the surprise I’ve been talking about. They’re big enough to leave their mom now and you can take one home.” 

Mac turns in his arms and cups his face, kissing him deeply. There’s a longing and a desperation to her kiss that has only shown up in the last few weeks since school ended and Will knows what it is. He knows that Mac is nervous about him leaving for Lincoln and is afraid that she’ll lose him. He doesn’t know what to do or what to say to prove to her that he’s in this for the long haul and being off at college isn’t going to change anything they have. He’s going to call as often as he can and he’s going to write letters and whenever he gets a chance, he’s going to come back and see her. He isn’t going to let this end. It’s never, ever going to end as long as he gets a say in it. 

Mac’s hands tangle in his hair and Will tilts his head, deepening the kiss. He slides his own hands down her back and slides them lower to cup her ass and press her up against him. He doesn’t have much more stamina than when they first started sleeping together but he can manage touching and pressing up against her when they’re wearing clothes without embarrassing himself. Mac’s fingers tug at his hair and Will slides one of his hands around to the front of her shorts, popping the button and easing the zipper down enough that he can slide his fingers beneath her little cotton panties. 

She’s wet and hot and he rubs his thumb against her clit while he eases two fingers into her. Mac’s kisses get rougher and more desperate and when her body clenches down against his fingers she bites his lower lip hard enough to draw blood. Will eases his hand away and grins at her while she does up her shorts. 

“Did I hurt you?” she asks, her voice soft and concerned. Mac brushes her thumb against his lower lip and Will just keeps smiling at her. “You didn’t hurt me. That was...fantastic. It was perfect. You’re perfect, Mac, you’re always gonna be perfect.” She blushes a little and kneels down in the hay to play with the kittens, trying to decide which one she wants to bring home. She ends up deciding on the smallest, a little fellow who mews softly and looks up at her with big green eyes. 

“I want this one. He needs a little love. I think...I think I want to name him Brave.” Will thinks that’s a silly name for a cat but it’s Mac’s cat and he figures she can name him whatever she wants to name him. She scoops up the kitten and cuddles him against her chest and Will can’t help but be jealous of the little furball - he knows from experience that Mac’s breasts are soft and warm and perfect. 

Will leaves her with the cat while he goes to wash off her shoes and once they’re clean, he dries them off with the tail of his t-shirt. He presents them to her and she drags her attention away from Brave long enough to slip them on. “So, if I go to summer school, I’ll be able to start at UNL in the fall with you. I have to take a full load of classes and I’ll probably have to take some remedials when I get to UNL but I can do it. I’ll get it done.” 

Will sighs and rubs his hand against his face. “Mac, I don’t want you to miss your senior year so you can follow me to Lincoln. Didn’t you want to go to Columbia anyway? Out in New York?” Columbia doesn’t have football and while his grades are good, Will hadn’t gotten in. He knows Mac will get in easily and her parents have the money to pay for her to go there. He doesn’t ever want to be the reason she gives up on her dreams. He wants her to have everything she wants even if that doesn’t include being with him. 

Mac looks stricken and Will wonders if he’s said the wrong thing. He just wants her to be her own person and chase her own dreams. He doesn’t want her to put her life on hold just to follow him. She shouldn’t do that. That’s what his mother did with his father and he doesn’t ever want Mac to end up like that. She should have everything she wants. 

“I just want you to follow your dreams, Mac, don’t follow me. Don’t do this because of me. I’m always going to be here for you once you’ve done what you want to do. Okay? I just want what’s best for you.” 

Mac’s face crumples up and she looks like she might yell or cry or possibly both at once. She balls her hand up in a fist and tips her chin up. He can see tears brimming at her eyes and he knows he’s done the wrong thing. He’s hurt Mac and that’s the last thing he ever wants to do. He can’t stand to see her cry and know it’s all his fault. It reminds him too much of his father. 

“ _You_ are my dream,” she spits out, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Being with you is what I want. How much do I have to beat that into you? You’re my dream. I don’t want to go anywhere without you, Will. I just want you.” 

Will smooths his hand over her hair and draws her up close, trying to ease the crying if he can. He’s so focused on Mac that he doesn’t hear when the barn door swings open and his father yells his name in a drunken, angry slur. 

“Will! I fucking told you to be back up at the house an hour ago. We’re going to be late for the stock auction.” Mac jumps back from him like she’s been burned and Will wants to shield her and protect her from this, from all of this. He never wants her to see this bullshit that is his life. Will mumbles a “yes, sir,” and he guesses his tone is bad because his dad crosses the few feet of distance between them and backhands him hard enough that his teeth rattle. Will spits out blood into the hay. 

“You...you fucking _bully_!” Mac shrieks and runs toward his father and Will wants to throw himself on her and protect her. He likes to think his father isn’t stupid enough to hit Mac but he’s drunk and that makes him stupid and mean. His dad turns his attention from Will onto Mac and laughs before tipping back whiskey from his ever-present bottle. 

“What do you think you’re going to do about it, little girl? Just like you to be a pussy who needs a girl to fight his fights.” Mac reaches out and her little hands shove against his dad’s shoulders, knocking him back and making him stumble. She kicks him in his shins and hauls her fist back and lets it fly with a sickening crack. There’s blood pouring from his dad’s nose and Mac is holding her hand and whimpering. Will scrambles to his feet and slides his arms around her. 

“Oh God! I killed him, I killed him, I killed him.” Mac is basically hysterical at this point and Will rubs her shoulders and tries to ease her crying. He doesn’t think his dad is dead. He’s still breathing easily and his eyelids flutter a little in a way that tells Will that he’s going to wake up sooner rather than later. He knows this from extensive personal experience. His dad wakes up and there’s intense hatred in his eyes and it’s all thrown toward Mac. 

“Don’t you ever hit him again. Don’t you hit him or her or the rest of them. You’re nothing but a drunk, idiotic bully who isn’t good enough for what you have and you have to take it out on your family instead of being proud of them. Don’t you ever, ever fucking touch him again.” He scrambles to his feet like he’s going to hit Mac and Will steps between them. This is what he never wanted to expose her to and now she’s seen it and seen how his dad brings him so low. 

“Are you bloody stupid? You can’t touch me. My father will have you below the jail if you do,” Mac says. She’s supremely confident in her threat and Will thinks it’s stupid to think his dad will think logically. His dad lunges and knocks Mac into the wall of the barn, his hands wrapped around her throat tight enough that her face is red and she’s struggling to breathe. 

“I don’t need you and your fucking superiority complex, little cunt. I’ll deal with my son the way I want to and you’re not going to tell me otherwise.” Will scrambles and finds his father’s whiskey bottle and cracks it over his head before dragging him off Mac. Mac sputters and coughs a little while she rubs her throat and Will rubs her back, trying to calm her down. 

“Come on, we’ve got to put something on those bruises so your parents don’t see them,” he says, shaky and panicked. Maybe if Mac can hide it, this doesn’t have to end. He doesn’t care if Mac caused this herself, the fact that his dad attacked her means her parents are never, ever going to let her see him again. Mac covers his hands with hers. 

“I’m telling my parents and the police what happened,” she says firmly. “I’m going to tell them the truth and I’m going to get that monster locked up where he belongs. I’m not going to have him hurt you or your family anymore.” Mac doesn’t understand that if his father’s in jail, the farm can’t run itself. What little money they have will be gone and he won’t be able to go off to college because he’ll have to stay here and take care of his family. 

“You can’t! You’re going to ruin everything if you tell, he can’t go to jail. My mom can’t run this place by herself and I’ll have to stay here and I won’t be able to go to UNL and and…” 

Mac can’t be persuaded. She marches back up to the house and dials her parents first, then the police. Will is worried about their reaction, of how they will react to their precious daughter being injured by his asshole, alcoholic father. Mac’s father looks absolutely livid when he drives up to the house and he wraps his arms around her. 

“MacKenzie, what happened? What did he do to you? How did he hurt you?” Mac explains that it had been Will’s father and that the police had been called but Mr. McHale doesn’t seem convinced that this is all there is to it. He’s worried about a whole lot of things and he’s looking at Will as if he’s capable of the same evil as his father. Of course. He knew this was going to happen and he doesn’t want Mac to be taken away from him. 

“MacKenzie, I don’t want you coming to this house anymore or seeing this boy. Everything is just too volatile.” That, of course, is Mac’s mother who is seated primly in one of his rickety kitchen chairs. Will’s mother presses her lips together and busies herself with brewing coffee for Mac’s parents and the officers who arrive. The officers know this house and know the situation and explain, none too gently, that they will be booking his father on assault for both Will and Mac. While his mother could drop the charges for herself, there’s nothing she can do when it’s two minors involved. 

“Mum, I can’t...he’s my boyfriend and I love him,” Mac shouts out. The officers ask her to calm down and she does, settling into silent little tears. The finish up their report and take his dad down to the jail and Will wonders if he’s ever going to get to see Mac again. He doesn’t want this to end because she did a stupid, brave thing. He doesn’t want the good things that are happening to get derailed, yet again, because of his father. 

“Please don’t think this is Will’s fault,” his mother says softly. She’s speaking to Mac’s father now and her voice is low and calm. “He’s...this is a situation that has needed to be handled for a long time and I’m sure MacKenzie just thought she was helping. She loves Will...she loves us very much and she just wanted to help, I’m certain. Please don’t let it color your opinion of Will. He loves MacKenzie very much.” 

Mr. McHale’s face softens a little. “It’s young love. She’ll learn to live without it, I’m sure, and I know this has nothing to do with your boy. He seems like a bright young man with a good heart. I just simply cannot allow my daughter to be injured or hurt by anyone and I cannot guarantee it won’t happen again while at your home. I’m very sorry, Mrs. McAvoy, but I can’t let her see your son any longer.” 

Will feels like his heart is breaking when he sees her walk out the door and he has no idea how to fix this. How is he going to convince her parents that he isn’t bad news?

***

Will doesn’t really see Mac for the rest of the summer. He puts in double and triple shifts at the grocery store and in August, a month before classes start, he packs up what little he has and goes to UNL for the first time. He knows this first month is going to be mostly football practice and getting ready for school but he can’t help but be excited. He misses Mac more than he could possibly say but there’s no getting around her parents to see her. He’d seen her in the grocery store and fell all over himself to be the one who got to bag her groceries; her parents had been cool, but polite, and Will hopes that means that they don’t think he was the one who hurt Mac. He’d never hurt her.

Football practice is hard. It’s always hard in summer but it’s twice as hard now because the guys hitting him are twice as big and twice as strong. He runs drills with the starting QB and the second string QB and Will is pretty much convinced he’s never actually going to play in a game, no matter what Coach Skinner and Coach Tom say. He’s good but he’s not good like they are. After a few practices, he sees that the first string QB isn’t good at reading the defenders like Will is and the second string QB relies on staying in the pocket for too long. Will likes to run and throw on the move and he thinks maybe he has a shot at playing in a real Nebraska game someday if he bulks up and keeps showing his best to the coach. 

One day, about two days before classes start, there’s something new down on the field. The cheerleaders have come out to practice and some of his teammates motion him over to talk to them. Will isn’t interested in other girls and definitely not Nebraska cheerleaders who are probably way out of his league but when he gets closer, he realizes that the girl on top of the pyramid is someone that he knows very, very well. 

“Mac? Mac, why are you here?” 

Mac reaches up and adjusts her ponytail before walking over to Will and the other football players. They make a few comments and make a few more when Mac grabs his face and kisses him like her life depends on it. All his teammates start whooping and cheering and Will can’t really do anything but go along with it. God, it feels like forever since he’s kissed her and he just wants to live in this moment and let everything else fall away. 

When she pulls away, her smile is brilliant. Will thinks he could drown in it and he wishes they weren’t right out in public in front of everyone. 

“I applied and got in early. I have a few remedials maths, of course, but I’m in. I had to come in early because I was on the Pom Squad. I wanted to be at all your football games.” Will doesn’t have the heart to tell her that there’s no way he’s going to get to play as a third string QB because the fact that she’s here is just so fucking exciting. Suddenly the long summer without her seems nonexistent. 

Will walks her away from the other cheerleaders and players so they can get a little privacy. It feels like he has a thousand questions for her and he doesn’t even know where to start. It’s perfectly natural to slide his hand in his and when he feels her squeeze his fingers, it’s like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. 

“What did your parents have to say about all this?” Will had been under the impression that her parents never wanted her to see him again so he can’t imagine they’d be too happy about her skipping her senior year of high school to come off to college with him. Mac shrugs a little and Will isn’t entirely sure how to read that. 

“I told them that I loved you and that I wanted to come to Nebraska with you. I told them that your father was in jail and he wasn’t ever going to hurt you or your family or me ever again. I told them that you’re nothing like that bastard and my mother threatened to wash my mouth out with soap. But...they agreed that it would be okay for me to start college early and to come to UNL and so here I am. Exactly where I wanted to be.” 

Will guesses he shouldn’t ever underestimate Mac’s ability to get what she wants. Still, the reunion is cut short when the QBs coach whistles for practice to start and everyone except football players clear off the field. It’s a good practice. Will knows that Mac is watching and he plays his heart out. He jukes defenders and he throws screen passes peppered in between long bombs that just sail across the field with an accuracy he didn’t know he had. He knows he’s supposed to redshirt this year but he still wants to make his case for starting next year. He’s playing his heart out and he knows the difference is Mac. Mac always makes him play his best. 

After practice, he finds Mac in the stands and slides his arm around her shoulders. She smells good, like roses and clean grass and something inexplicably _Mac_ and he thinks this is the one thing that his experience at UNL had been missing. He doesn’t know how he expected to come out here without her and how he expected to survive her being all the way across the country at Columbia. While he doesn’t want to admit she was right, she kind of was, and he’s glad she made this decision. He only hopes that circumstances didn’t pressure her into it. 

“Want to go to the Dairy Store? They have great ice cream.” Will finds he doesn’t really have to twist Mac’s arm to get her to go. She’s missed him as much as he’s missed her and while it’s kind of a walk to East Campus from the practice field, it gives them time to catch up. He learns that Mac still doesn’t have a car and doesn’t know how to drive and he promises to teach her the first chance he gets - which is probably going to be a while from now. 

When they settle with their ice cream (chocolate for Mac and vanilla for Will), Mac chatters happily about settling into her dorm room. She’s in Cather and apparently her roommate is...unusual at best. 

“I like her, she’s just very intense,” Mac explains. “Her name is Sloan and she’s an economics major. When I told her that I have to count on my fingers, the look she gave me could only be described as pity.” Mac licks her spoon and a tiny drop of ice cream settles on her lower lip. Will can’t help but lean in and kiss her softly to lick it away. It’s in public, sure, but he thinks they’ve probably seen much worse out of college students. 

“I haven’t decided but I think I’ll go through Rush and try to move into one of the sorority houses. I might get my own room that way.” Will doesn’t have any interest in the fraternities and sororities. It costs a lot of money to be in a fraternity and most of those guys have had men in their family wear letters for generations. Will’s parents didn’t even finish high school so he figures that he has no place in one of them. Mac, on the other hand, is probably exactly the kind of girl those sororities would kill to have. 

“Did you have a particular one in mind? It’s all a lot of cheering and colors and little animal mascots to me but maybe you can tell them apart.” Mac laughs and says she’s narrowed it down to Chi O and Tri-Delt, maybe Gamma Phi Beta if neither of the others will have her. It is, predictably, all Greek to Will. He just wants her to do what makes her happy at the end of the day. 

Mac checks her watch and realizes she’s late for some kind of informational meeting and she pecks a quick kiss on Will’s cheek and runs off, making him wonder if she was just a figment of his Mac-starved imagination.

***

A month later, Mac has abandoned her tiny little dorm for a room she shares with two other girls, including Sloan, in the Tri-Delt house. Will hates going over there. Everything is bright blue and gold and there are dolphins and tridents everywhere and it’s like some weird little fairy tale. There’s rules about him going upstairs (in that, he’s not allowed to do it) and the house mother glares at him whenever he comes over to pick Mac up for a date, as if he’s just not good enough to be there.

Sloan tags along on their dates sometimes. Mac has warmed up to her and has taken her under her wing, though Will’s pretty sure that Sloan thinks _she’s_ the one adopting Mac. They’re weird together, sure, but it’s kind of sweet to see Mac have a friend who is a girl and to have something she likes outside of Will. Whenever they go out together, Mac spots them all and Will’s okay with it because it’s not a date. It’s hanging out with friends and he thinks if Mac wants to pay for his and Sloan’s ice cream, he can let her do that. 

It’s a Thursday afternoon and Will has practice both before and after dinner so his time is very limited. Sloan corners him on the Tri-Delt porch and gets very, very close into his personal space. Oh. Well then. Mac is giggling behind her hand and Will suddenly feels like he’s been dealt into a card game and not told what the rules are. 

“Do you need a Team Manager?” It’s kind of a weird question and Will isn’t entirely sure that he’s the person to ask. He’s three deep on the depth chart and there’s no way in hell his ass is doing anything with Huskers football other than riding a bench for the foreseeable future. Besides, he’s redshirting, and he can’t even go in during garbage time because it’ll mess that up. Nobody wants to play a freshman. 

“Uh, I don’t exactly know. You’d probably have to ask Coach Tom about that. I guess we might need one? Why do you ask?” Will’s afraid of the answer. He opens all the doors between the Tri Delt house and the student union and by the time they finally sit down with their burgers and fries, Sloan has an answer for him. 

“I was thinking it would be a good project for my management class. Applying business principles to football? Besides, the statistics interest me. Did you know that the Blackshirts are the strongest defensive unit in all of college football?” Mac looks to him with big eyes and Will laughs a little and shrugs. “Yeah, which is why I’m glad they’re on my team and they’re not beating the shit out of us on the offense side. Are you really that into the statistics? I’ll ask Coach if he’s looking for someone to...manage.” 

Sloan’s eyes gleam a little and she goes back to her burger and fries with a little more gusto than Will is comfortable with. She’s intense about everything it seems. Mac eats all of her fries and starts stealing them from Will’s plate when she thinks he isn’t looking. He surreptitiously pushes his plate closer to facilitate that. 

“So I was thinking we could all schedule to take history together next semester,” Mac says. “I haven’t decided what I want to major in so I’m just doing my general classes and I know I might not get much of a chance to have a class with Will. Are you in, Sloan? Do you want to sign up for the 9:00 AM?” Sloan nods and Will thinks the 9:00 probably wouldn’t interfere with morning practice. He wants to look really good by the time the spring game comes along so he gets a chance to start next year. 

“Yeah, we can all sign up for the 9. It’ll be fun getting to take a class with you,” he says, leaning in and kissing her softly. After a few long minutes, Sloan coughs loudly and Will breaks away. His face feels hot and he knows he’s blushing.

***

It turns out that there’s an opening for team manager along with an opening for defensive coordinator so in late October, Will gets the twin surprise of seeing Sloan arguing with Coach Skinner on the sidelines one day during a game. He has no idea what it’s about but he figures it has to be important, the way their faces both seem to be red. It’s a night game and it’s cold enough out that Will can see his breath whenever he says anything.

It’s been kind of a bad night. They’re playing Missouri and their first string QB has already gone down with a torn ACL and they’re pretty sure he’s going to need surgery. The second string guy is in, a guy named Elliot, and he just went down on a nasty tackle. These guys from Missouri don’t mess around and the O-line just isn’t doing its job tonight. 

“McAvoy! You’re in!” Coach is screaming in his ear and Will barely even knows the plays, much less how to call them on the field. Suddenly he’s in the huddle with guys three times his size looking to him for guidance and he has no idea what to say. He calls a play, a safe one, and they break and get out on the field. His wideout isn’t running the right route, though, and Will has to improvise on the fly, faking to his tight end before shooting right and sending the ball flying toward his receiver who is, sort of, in the right place. 

It works. Thank God and everyone else above but it works and the pass is caught and he’s running down the field. There’s nobody even close and he runs right home for a touchdown. Will thinks that’s got to be some kind of NCAA record to throw a touchdown pass on his first ever play on the field but he doesn’t have time to think about it. All he has time to think about is the next play, and the next, and trying his damndest to not get sacked. 

Will manages to get the ball to one of his running backs, Lonny, and they get another score. It’s a safe two touchdown lead and they end up holding onto it for the rest of the night without any more major injuries. Once he’s had a chance to get out of his pads and hit the showers, he learns that Elliot’s got a broken ankle and he’s out for the season too. So much for redshirting. Will is pretty much it and he’s going to have to learn playing for the Huskers with his feet to the fire. 

When he mentions this to Mac later in bed, she laughs softly. “Feet to the fire is what you eat for breakfast. I don’t think you’re going to have an issue doing well, Will. You’re the most amazing quarterback I’ve ever seen.” Will loves her confidence but it’s really not about being the best. It’s about the team around him being their best more than it’s about him doing a good job but he’ll do the best he can and hope they can play right along with him. 

Will’s roommate is never home. He’s a chemistry major and between the heavy practice schedule for football (he’s in an athletic dorm) and his heavy lab schedule, the guy just never has time to come home and sleep. It’s kind of nice. It’s like being by himself and it means that Mac has a place to come and be with him privately. It’s still a little twin sized bed and they’re both tall enough that it’s massively uncomfortable unless Mac just sleeps on top of him but it’s better than being back home. They don’t have to sneak around to keep away from nosy parents, anyway, and sex happens a lot more often than it ever did back home. 

Right now, he’s never been more grateful for an absent roommate. Mac’s soft lips are pressed up against his mouth and he parts his own, letting her kiss him deeper. His hands work their way up under her t-shirt and he’s pleased to find she’s not wearing a bra. All he feels beneath his fingertips is soft, smooth skin and he slides the t-shirt off to toss it to the ground. Mac lifts up just enough that Will can cup her breasts and tease her nipples with his teeth and tongue. She makes soft, whimpery little noises and Will longs for the day that they have their own house and don’t have to be quiet. He wants Mac to be loud. He slides his hands into her panties and pushes them down, laughing a little when her own hands get tangled up in his shorts. 

“You’d think we’d never done this before,” she says, laughing softly, and she leans forward and over his head to snag a condom from his bedside table. She feels so good that he has to take in a sharp breath and just hold it for a little while and when she rolls the condom down on his dick, it’s all he can do to keep from rolling her beneath him and just sliding into her. After a few more moments of Mac kissing him, he does just that and it feels good. It feels like coming home, as cheesy as that sounds, and he doesn’t last very long before he’s coming with a strangled little moan. 

It takes him a moment or two to catch his breath but once he does, he pulls away and deals with the condom before sliding down between her legs to press his mouth against her. Mac’s fingers curl into his hair and when he sucks on her clit, they yank hard enough to cause him a little bit of pain. It’s worth it. It’s worth it to feel her squirming under him and crying out in that soft little voice and when she seems to have calmed down a little, he pulls his mouth away and kisses her thigh. 

“Love you, baby. I’m always gonna love you.” Mac pulls him up so he can lay next to her and they fall asleep just like that. Will thinks he wants to fall asleep like this every day for the rest of his life.

***

Will starts for the rest of the season. He knows it isn’t guaranteed that he’ll get a chance to start next season without earning it but for now, he’s enjoying the attention. Most of the Nebraska games are televised and a lot of the time, he ends up having to give interviews on the field after the game. It’s weird. All the lights and cameras are in his face as if he’s a person that matters and the only thing he wants after every game is Mac.

The Pom Squad wears little red and white striped sweaters when it gets cold and Mac has one on paired with her short, pleated skirt. It’s ridiculous how much he wants her and he doesn’t like it when other guys look at her; unfortunately, that happens a lot since she’s on the cheerleading squad and Will has to tamp down his anger. He knows he doesn’t have anything to be jealous over, Mac would never cheat on him, but he doesn’t like the attention she gets from other guys and from the grown men at the football games. It makes him feel angry and desperately possessive and he tries to push that down in order to be supportive and happy for her. Him being an asshole isn’t going to help her one bit, especially when she isn’t doing anything wrong. 

One afternoon, Mac finds him after classes and kisses him desperately. It’s a little out of the ordinary and he breaks the kiss as gently as he can before pushing her away a little. “Mac, what’s wrong? This isn’t...I mean, I like it, but it’s not like you to just pounce me in the middle of the day.” 

Mac’s face is dark for a moment and then she takes in a shaky little breath. “The Pom Squad had to go to the boosters’ lunch today,” she says, words tumbling out in a little rush. “And I guess they had too much to drink, or something, but some of them kept touching me and some of the other girls. Nothing happened, it was just touching, but I just feel all dirty and wrong and I wanted to…”

Will can’t hear the rest of it. “You’ve got to tell someone, Mac. Who’s the president of the boosters? The athletic director? Who can you tell?” Mac mumbles a name (Leona Lansing) and Will decides that if Mac won’t talk to this Mrs. Lansing herself, he’ll do it for her. He thinks this is probably Mac’s battle to fight but he’s going to be there to help her if she needs it. He doesn’t want her to feel uncomfortable and afraid when she’s doing something she likes and he wishes he knew who these assholes were so he could break their fingers for touching his girl. 

“We can go tell her now, if you want. She has an office on campus in the athletics building.” Will offers to go with her for moral support and it’s weird to be in these offices. He knows where they are, of course, because Coach’s office is in this building but he’s never actually been in one of these wood-paneled offices before now. He certainly has never met anyone like Leona Lansing. 

She’s in a dark suit with pearls around her neck and she looks a little scary. Will swallows thickly and tries to let Mac do the talking. This is her battle to fight and not his, no matter how much he wants to jump in and shield her from everything that’s wrong in her life. Mac tells the story slowly, taking deep breaths a few times to regain her composure and Mrs. Lansing mutters a curse under her breath. 

“Son of a bitch. And it wasn’t just you, MacKenzie?” Mac shakes her head and Mrs. Lansing crosses the room and touches her shoulder lightly, squeezing it. “Sometimes it’s hard being a woman in a world like this. It’s hard for men to believe that something is off limits to them until you remind them. I’m going to handle this for you. Cheerleaders aren’t going to be at booster events from now on, not unless someone from the AD’s office is there too. I’ll come personally if it keeps the fuckers from touching you.” 

Mac looks startled and Mrs. Lansing shrugs. “Pardon my French. I just get a little worked up about these things. You kids go on and get out of here before I lose my cool a little more. I’ve got phone calls to make.”

Will thinks it went well, considering, but he definitely doesn’t want to make a habit of showing up in the AD’s office. He especially finds this to be true after seeing her ream out Coach Skinner and Coach Tom a few times about God knows what and he thinks that Leona Lansing is a very powerful, very scary lady. She seems to like Mac a lot, though, and Will’s glad that she has someone so powerful in her corner. 

Will keeps starting. October edges into November and he doesn’t have time to go home for Thanksgiving because there’s a big game the day after with Oklahoma. There’s no team that Nebraska hates more than Oklahoma and the whole week before, it’s like there’s blood in the water. Everyone is vicious and everyone is reminding him that he’d better win the game. Nebraska is ranked number 1 in the whole country and it’s all riding on Will. 

Yeah. That’s not pressure _at all_. 

Will tries to keep to himself for the most part, which is easy since most students have already gone home for the holiday. Mac elects to stay and the two of them are curled up on a couch in the Tri Delt house; Mac is keeping one eye open for the house mother so she can tell Will to scram if she needs to but it’s mostly deserted. 

“Do you think we’re going to beat Oklahoma, Mac?” Mac snuggles a little more in his arms and pillows her head on his chest before responding. They both have to get up early in the morning to load onto a bus to drive to Norman; it’s almost a seven hour drive and they want the team to have a good night’s rest before playing on Friday. Will isn’t too thrilled about spending Thanksgiving on the road but he guesses he doesn’t really have any other options as a football player. At least Mac will be with him, although cheerleaders ride on the bus with the band and not with the team. 

“I think we have as good a chance as any. You’re a fantastic quarterback, Will, and you’ve been doing great even though you just got thrown in here to face the fire. I think it’s going to go as well as expected and I think even if you lose, they have to be proud of you. Who couldn’t be proud of you? You’re...you’re really something out there.” 

Will strokes her hair lightly. Mac has somehow managed to stretch along the length of his body on this couch and every inch of her is pressed up against every inch of him. It’s warm and comfortably intimate and it’s kind of nice to just have a time and a place that he can spend this sort of time with her. This is what he wants more than anything - a chance to be with Mac the way she deserves. Maybe he doesn’t have a lot of money or a lot of time but when he does have time, he wants to spoil her with it. 

“I just don’t want to let Coach Tom or Coach Skinner down,” he says, taking in a shaky little breath. “They both risked a lot by giving me a scholarship to come out here and I just...I want to make them proud, if I can.” Mac lifts her head up and looks at him and Will thinks he could probably just drown in those big brown eyes of hers. God, she’s beautiful and she only gets more beautiful every day. 

“You’re not going to let them down. You’d never let them down. I’ve never seen anyone as smart and determined as you are and you’re...you’re balancing football and you made the Dean’s list? Come on, Will. You’re not letting _anyone_ down. You’re making them all so proud of you that they can barely contain themselves. That’s what I think, anyway.” 

Will is certain that he’s the luckiest guy on the planet. Nobody supports him and believes in him the way Mac does and he thinks if he always has Mac in his corner, there’s no way he can fail. There’s no way he’ll ever give up or do badly if he knows he’s playing for Mac and having her on the field during the games is an inspiration that drives him to do his best, no matter what. He’s so grateful for her. 

He cups her face in his hands and kisses her softly, just trying to express how much he feels for her in that one point of contact. It isn’t desperate like their kisses during sex. It’s something deeper and more meaningful, more like reaffirming that they’re soulmates and this is where they’re meant to be and Will thinks if he could spend the rest of his life kissing Mac like this, it still wouldn’t be enough. It’s never going to be enough. 

Thanksgiving day dawns clear and cold and they load up the buses early to head down to Norman. The roads are pretty abandoned and they make good time, although on the way through Wichita the bus needs a tire change and they all get out and stretch their legs for a minute. Will immediately makes a beeline for the band bus and finds Mac; Sloan is right behind them. She rides on the team bus with him but she always sits up front with the coaches so Will never gets a chance to see her. One of the guards, a guy named Keefer, seems to always be getting in an argument with her and Will wonders which of them is going to crack first. He suspects Keefer’s going to end up kissing her just to get her to shut up but he doesn’t want to make a bet on it for fear Sloan might find out. 

“Why is it taking so long to change a tire? We could have called AAA,” Sloan complains. She’s jumping up and down in place in an attempt to keep warm and Will slides the arm not currently occupied by Mac around her shoulders to help share some warmth. They’re in a little huddle, which would be funny if he wasn’t nervous as hell and if Sloan wasn’t just making it worse. She has a tendency to do that sometimes. 

“You know, you’ve got like, a 1.5% chance of not throwing a pick against Oklahoma’s secondary. I looked at all your stats and the stats of their corners and safeties and I came up with that. 1.5%. Coach Tom wasn’t really interested in my statistics, though, and Keefer told me that they weren’t going to let any of the Oklahoma guys blitz you today. I reminded him of all those sacks they allowed against Kansas…” 

Mac clears her throat loudly. “Sloan, maybe it’s better if we don’t talk any football right now? Will really wants to do well and he doesn’t need the extra pressure. We can talk about all the statistics you want once the game is through.” Will has never been more grateful for Mac and her tact than in this moment because Sloan wisely starts going through and listing all the weaknesses of the Oklahoma defense and offense and boldly predicts that Oklahoma will stutter in the third quarter and Nebraska will win the game. Will sure hopes so. 

The break is all too brief and soon he’s back on the bus. He’s been studying plays as the fields roll by and he goes back to that, trying to put into his head all the tricky plays that Coach Tom wrote with QBs 1 and 2 in mind. It’s weird, because Will doesn’t like to think about what Terry and Elliot might have done but he kind of has to in order to get his head around these plays. He really, really hopes they do well. He doesn’t want everyone blaming him if Nebraska loses, that’s for sure. 

Will is quiet during the pre-game and Coach Skinner comes over to ask him what’s wrong. He doesn’t talk to him a lot anymore since he’s the defensive coordinator but everyone knows that he was Will’s high school coach and they have a special relationship. Coach Skinner sometimes takes breaks from his job to come talk to Will and encourage him and that’s what he’s doing now. 

“You look like you’re going to throw up on your cleats. Why are you so nervous? You’ve been playing great.” Coach Skinner squeezes his shoulder and it feels like they’re back in high school again, that Will’s a skinny little freshman who hasn’t hit his growth spurt. Weirdly, it’s kind of a good feeling and he relaxes a little. 

“Sloan was telling me I have like, a 99.5% chance of throwing a pick to the Oklahoma secondary and I really don’t want to do that.” Coach Skinner makes a huffy noise and shakes his head. “That girl thinks too much about math and not about what it feels like to win. You’ve tasted what it’s like to win and you’re not going to let anything get in the way of that. So what if you throw a pick? We all do it at least once. You’ve got the best defensive unit backing you up so if you throw a pick, they’re going to force them to turn it back over. You can take that to the bank.” 

Will tries to carry that with him onto the field. He throws for a touchdown in the first quarter only for Oklahoma to score two in the second. They tie it up, Oklahoma scores again. By the time the fourth quarter rolls around, Will only has a one touchdown cushion and they’ve been backed all the way up into the end zone; he’s doing his damndest not to get sacked and give the other team a safety but it’s all he can do. 

Defense ends up winning the day. They go fifteen whole minutes with no scores on either side and at the end of it, Nebraska holds on and wins it 28-21. It’s not the blowout win that Will would have liked, but it was solid, and he thinks it means they might actually be playing for a national championship this year. He doesn’t know which bowl they’re going to go to but it’ll be a good one since they have a perfect regular season record and they’re ranked number 1 in the polls. The whole team lifts him up on their shoulders and carries him through the tunnel back to the visitor’s locker room and Will doesn’t think he’s ever been happier in his life. His first year playing football and they’re winning like _this_? It’s some kind of miracle. 

Coach lets Mac ride the bus back with him as a treat and Will is more than happy to kick his center out of the seat next to him and snuggle up with his girlfriend. They’re sharing a blanket and at some point Mac falls asleep with her head on Will’s shoulder and he thinks that there’s no happier place in the world. They’ve all won today and played spectacularly and now he has the prettiest girl in the world snoozing away on his shoulder. It’s better than any trophy.

***

They finish out the season by playing in the Orange Bowl on New Years. It’s in Miami and the school actually flies the players out there; it’s Will’s first time on a plane and he’s pretty sure he wants it to be his last. It was possibly the most uncomfortable experience of his life, being crammed into a tiny little seat for a couple hours, and the way the plane lurched in turbulence made him sick to his stomach. He’ll drive places, thanks, and it’ll just take him a hell of a lot longer to get there.

Mac’s parents fly out to Miami as well, wanting to support him and Mac both. She’s still on the Pom Squad and while she hasn’t said anything, Will thinks maybe the incident with the boosters club was just a one time thing because she doesn’t seem to be unhappy anymore about going to events. Her favorites are when she gets to go to the hospital to visit sick kids and they get to do that in Miami as well with the cheerleaders from University of Miami. She’s pink-cheeked and excited before the game and, as always, she kisses him for luck before he has to go into the locker room. This time, there’s a reporter there who snaps a picture of it and says it’ll be in all the papers in the morning. Will isn’t exactly sure how he feels about that. 

He feels good about the game. It’s basically a battle for the National Title and that’s a lot of pressure but nobody expected Nebraska to do this well with a third string freshman and the fact that they’re here says a lot about the coaching and, as much as he hates to admit it, his own talent. Will isn’t the kind of guy to get wrapped up in his own ego and he thinks it’s more because he works hard and less because he’s just born with it. Will is the hardest worker that he knows. 

It’s close. Miami is a good team and Will is pulling out all the tricks he knows to try and stop them but it comes down to one last touchdown drive late in the fourth for them to pull out the victory. If they go for two, it’ll be a win and if they just kick for the extra point, it’s a tie. Coach doesn’t want a tie. Will doesn’t want a tie either and he goes for it, throwing a pass over to one of his tight ends lined up in the end zone. It gets tipped by one of the Miami safeties and the clock runs out and they’ve lost by one solitary point. Oh. 

Will feels...well, he feels like they played well and he only did what he thought was best and what Coach thought was best. Coach cheers him on and they go shake hands with the other team who, even though they’re high on their win, are quick to congratulate the Huskers on a job well done. Will hopes he gets a chance to come back here next year and show them what he’s made of and show them that he’s a damn good quarterback but when he mentions this to Coach Skinner, the coach just laughs. 

“Son, you’ve already shown that. If you don’t start next year, I’ll drink up all the bourbon in Kentucky.” Will isn’t as confident as all that but he does feel good about starting. Maybe he can show them what he’s got and win the job outright against the other two guys; it seems like a cheat to only be starting because of injuries. 

After the game, Mac’s parents find him and congratulate him on a job well done. It’s very, very late but they invite him to come have breakfast at their hotel in the morning; Mr. McHale says he’ll send a car over. Will isn’t going to say no to that and when he wakes up the next day, he pulls on the slacks and sport coat and tie he wears for press conferences. It’s the nicest outfit he has but he wants to look his best if he’s having breakfast with Mac’s parents and it seems to go over well. Her father seems much more inclined to be warm and friendly to him than he usually is and Will has to wonder if that isn’t just because of football and bragging rights. He guesses he won’t question it too much. 

“What are your plans for next year, William? Are you going to continue to play football?” Will sips lightly at his orange juice before answering and he hopes that his answer is crafted carefully enough and is eloquent enough to satisfy Mr. McHale. There’s nothing he wants more than to impress Mac’s parents and to show them that he is not like his father in any way. He will always do his best to protect Mac and to be good to Mac and he hopes, someday, to be their son-in-law. He wants to show them that he’s worthy of that. He reaches for Mac’s hand under the table and she squeezes it a little. 

“Well, sir, I have to play football in order to keep my scholarship. But I’m planning on going all four years and finishing my degree no matter what happens with my football career. The way I look at it, there’s always a chance I might get injured or I might not even get considered for the NFL and school is more important. I want...I want a fallback plan so I can get a good job and take care of Mac. I don’t want her to have to worry about anything.” 

Mac’s mother seems pleased with that answer and Mr. McHale presses a little further. “Are you saying you intend to marry MacKenzie someday?” Well. Will hadn’t really wanted to come out and say that this early along but he swallows thickly and nods. “Yes, sir. I would love to marry MacKenzie someday if that’s what MacKenzie wants. I mean, I can ask and all but it’s really up to her at the end of the day. I would really like your blessing if we ever get to that point, though.” 

Mac is blushing bright pink and her father coughs a little. “Well, I think it’s good that you’re thinking about the future. Your ability to play a sport will fade but your mind is always going to be a keen instrument. It’s a very mature sentiment to want to focus on your education first and on the game second.” 

Will can’t help but think he passed some kind of invisible test and he kind of wants to jump up and down in his excitement. He doesn’t think Mac’s refined parents are going to go for that, though, so he settles for squeezing her hand again under the table and grinning as broadly as he can manage. He feels like an idiot, true, but he’s definitely a happy idiot.

***

Over the summer, he and Mac go back to Waverly. She basically gets to lounge around most of the time but Will has to put in long, hard hours at the grocery store. He turns over about three quarters of his money over to his mom. She’s been struggling to keep the farm running since his dad has been in jail and when Will pressed her about what she was going to do when he got out, his mother had indicated that she might actually be through with him.

“I’m not sure, Billy. It’s hard for me to keep running this place by myself and I don’t want you to have to help me do it when you have school and football but...it’s better around here without him. I think it would be better if we didn’t have him around anymore.” He’s not scheduled to come out until after Will’s back at school and he’s a nervous wreck about what his mother’s going to do. If Will isn’t there to protect her, who is going to? Susan and Mary are too scared to stand up to him and Michael doesn’t care. It’s really up to Will. 

In the end, he doesn’t get a lot of say. His father comes back to the farm after Will’s gone back to Nebraska for the year and from what limited conversations he has with his mother, everything seems to be all right. He isn’t drinking and he’s working hard and he hasn’t hit any of them. Will feels like he’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop and he’s afraid he’s going to end up having to make a choice and come home from Nebraska in order to protect his family against his monster of a dad. It’s a lot of pressure, especially considering he’s starting all the time now and there’s big buzz that he might be in the running for a Heisman. Will doesn’t think people as young as him usually win it but he can’t help but be a little excited that he even has a shot. 

One day, late in November after a crushing loss to Oklahoma, Mac is snuggled up in his dorm room with him. Will has a private room this year and while she has a private room in the Tri Delt house, nobody is policing what she does over in Will’s dorm and she much prefers it over here. The Tri Delt House Mother is very, very concerned about Mac’s chastity. 

“I haven’t the heart to tell her that I haven’t been a virgin for like two years,” Mac says, giggling, and Will scowls. “Yeah, I really don’t need to have her hate me any more than she already does. She thinks you’re an untouched angel or something and I really, really need everyone to keep thinking that. What if it got back around to your parents?” 

Will cares a little less about his. His dad knows he’s had sex with Mac and he doesn’t figure his mother cares as long as he’s careful about it. How could she, when she gave birth to Will at sixteen? But Mac’s parents are classy, rich people and there’s no way he ever wants them thinking he’s had sex with their daughter until after they’ve been married a year and there’s a baby on the way. Then, maybe, it’s marginally acceptable. 

“I doubt it’s going to get back to my parents. Anyway, have they announced the Heisman thing yet? I’m not really sure how it works.” Will isn’t entirely sure himself but he shares with Mac that Coach told him he’d been invited to New York to the ceremony. From what he understands, only the top few candidates get invited to come to New York and Will is only one of four that they invited. 

“I don’t think I’m going to win it. I’m too young. I’m going against seniors,” he says. Mac kisses him softly. “I believe in you, Will. If anyone can win this trophy, it’s you. You’re...you’re always better than you think you are, you know? I think you need to be a little more confident about how amazing you are. Anyway, I just wanted to know about the ceremony because...my parents want to be sure they can get your mother out to see it. They wanted to buy her plane ticket when they buy their own.” 

Will is...stunned. And overwhelmed. He doesn’t like taking a lot of charity but there’s just no way he isn’t going to let Mac’s parents get his mom out to see the Heisman ceremony. If he wins and his mother doesn’t get to see it, he’ll always regret it and this way it’s guaranteed that she’ll be there. There’s nobody he wants there more than his mother and Mac and it sounds like Mac’s parents are going to make that a reality. 

“Well, um, it’s the second weekend in December. The Heisman Trust is flying me and Coach out but...wow, sorry. I’m just overwhelmed they want to do that for my mom.” Mac laughs softly and tucks herself in against his body. He just feels so warm and comfortable next to her and he hopes they can sleep just like this for the rest of his life. 

“You’re going to be their son-in-law someday soon, Will. Of course they want to fly your mother out to see you win a Heisman. And you’re going to win. I have no doubt in my mind that you’re absolutely going to win.” 

She’s more confident than he is but Will thinks if Mac is believing in him, he can do anything at all. 

When the weekend of the ceremony rolls around, they all end up boarding a plane together and flying out to New York. Sloan wants to go but her parents aren’t willing to pay for the ticket so she packs up (moodily) and flies back to California for the holiday. Before she leaves, she tells Mac and Will that she’s going to be watching them on TV because her parents have satellite and that he’d better make a good speech and not embarrass Nebraska. Well. If Will didn’t feel weird about giving a speech before, he sure does now. He hopes it isn’t relevant. 

A lot of reporters have been in his face lately asking if he’s going to declare for the NFL draft in January and Will hasn’t decided. At the end of the day, he thinks it’s much more important to get a good education and he can get that at Nebraska. Declaring for the draft means giving that up and giving up a sure thing (getting a good job post graduation) for something solely predicated upon his skill to throw a football. Maybe if it was just him he was depending on, he’d go for it but he has to think about Mac. Mac is going to be his wife someday and he needs a way to take care of her before he goes off chasing dreams like playing in the NFL. 

He’s nervous all the way through the ceremony and when they actually call his name and say he’s won, he doesn’t even know what to say. His carefully prepared speech goes out the window and he talks, instead, about his mother and about Coach Skinner and Coach Tom. He talks an awful lot about Mac and how much he loves her and she supports him and he announces his intention to stay at Nebraska for two more years and finish up his degree. That’s what he’s there for, after all, and he wants a college degree because nobody else in his family has one. He wants to beat the odds and he wants, above all, to be someone that Mac’s parents could see their daughter marrying. 

He lifts up the trophy (God, it’s heavy) and smiles into the cameras until he’s absolutely convinced that the flashes have blinded him. Everyone wants to talk to him but he makes a beeline to Mac instead, putting down the heavy Heisman and scooping her up into his arms to kiss her over and over and over again. 

The next week, Sports Illustrated has him on the cover and it’s the photo of him kissing Mac during the ceremony, Heisman forgotten on the ground beside them. 

Will thinks that’s kind of fitting.


End file.
